Who were witches?: Marblehead author delves into local history in first novel

Friday

Jul 17, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 17, 2009 at 5:18 PM

In her first novel, “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane,” Marblehead author Katherine Howe asks a new question about the Salem witch trial hysteria — what if the witch trials weren’t the outbreaks of Puritan hysteria? What if the magic was real?

VIDEO: Katherine Howe reads from her novel

Sarah Menesale / georgetown@cnc.com

In her first novel, “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane,” Marblehead author Katherine Howe asks a new question about the Salem witch trial hysteria — what if the witch trials weren’t the outbreaks of Puritan hysteria? What if the magic was real?

“Didn’t Arthur Miller do it best? Aren’t there enough [books]? How else can we account for 19 people being put to death … they must have been crazy,” said Howe to an audience of nearly 50 at the Abbot Public Library in Marblehead last month. Georgetown residents were able to hear Howe during an American Association of University Women and Friends of the Georgetown Peabody Library brunch on April 4 at the Peabody Library.

Instead Howe tackles the subject of the Salem witch trials by telling two stories at once, with chapters flipping back and forth between the tale of a New England grad-student in 1991 and the witch trials in 1692.

Her story is about Harvard grad student Connie Goodwin, who discovers one of her ancestors, Deliverance Dane, was an accused witch. She finds a slip of paper with the words “Deliverance Dane” thrust into an ancient key in a book while taking care of her grandmother’s home in Marblehead. The slip of paper leads her on a search through history and changes her preconceptions of the Salem witch trails. It makes her ask the question and discover the truth — is magic real?

Howe has experienced much success since the book hit stores on June 9. It’s currently ranked number 10 on the New York Times bestseller list after four weeks and number 38 on Amazon.com as of this week.

“I’m speechless. I thought if I were really lucky I’d get a publisher. I’m happy so many people seem to be really enjoying the book — it’s something fun and educational,” Howe said.

Just one day after the book’s release, on June 10, she spoke to locals about how and why she came up with the story. Earlier in the day she had been on “Good Morning America.”

“What a tremendous thrill for the library to have her here as a celebrity and local author,” said library director Patricia Rogers.

Howe began her talk showing the audience a Magic 8 ball.

“How is my reading going to go?” she asked and shook the ball. It answered, “Check back later,” which made the audience laugh. Howe explained the Magic 8 ball is a novelty that shows how magic still affects our everyday lives.

“When we talk about witchcraft, especially in history, we like to think it’s not a thought we adhere to now,” said Howe. Not so, said Howe, explaining other ways magic is part of today’s culture, including people placing sentiment on heirlooms and calling items “lucky.”

Why witchcraft? Howe became fascinated with the subject during long walks along the old railroad bed, now a wooded trail, between Marblehead and Salem. She took the walks with her dog to relieve stress while preparing for doctoral qualifying exams.

Howe is also a direct descendant of Elizabeth Howe, executed as a witch during the Salem witch trials, and of Elizabeth Proctor, who survived the ordeal.

In the 1600s witchcraft was against the law and punishable by death. It was a real fear in the religious and social system and people assumed it could be real — Satan could be affecting people in the community. So putting these people up for trial was thought to be rational, Howe explained.

“Our fairy tale picture of a witch and the historic picture of the type of people being accused is completely opposite. Those accused were typically on the fringes of society,” she said.

So Howe asked the question: If witchcraft were real the way the Puritans believed it to be, what would that look like? She took a name from history, Deliverance Dane of Andover — a woman who was accused at the very end of the Salem panic but wasn’t killed — and created her story.

Many of the accused witches of the time — from what are now the communities of Salem, Danvers, Topsfield, Andover and Lynn — were executed. Others were luckier, but still faced a huge price socially and financially as well as estrangement from the church.

The panic began in Danvers, which at the time was called “Salem Village.” Howe took a lot of inspiration from the witchcraft victims’ memorial in Danvers.

“Witches may just be women we would now call herbalists,” said Howe, explaining that under such a strict religious society people “shouldn’t be someone creating something God didn’t create.”

She explained further saying, “I was surprised to learn how enthusiastic townspeople were at the very beginning [of the witch panic]. The more I read about the theology I realized how relieved they’d be when Bridget Bishop [the first person executed for witchcraftduring the Salem witchcraft trials] was put to death. How they’d rejoice, religiously,” she said.

Howe incorporates many local towns and places in her book making it feel very authentic.

The book is also a love story between Connie and steeplejack Sam. The interplay between mothers and daughters was also a key element to the book. Howe delves into those relationships beginning with Deliverance and her daughter Mercy up to Connie and her mother Grace.

The only area readers may have to put a little faith in Howe is the ending — not to give anything away — but as the conflict is resolved things get a little magical.

About Howe

A local celebrity in her own right, Howe moved to Marblehead in 2005 from Cambridge with her husband. In their first apartment in town there was a tiny horseshoe covered in layers of paint above a back door. There are many of these around town, she explained. Horseshoes are thought to be lucky.

Many of the names of characters in her book, except for those that are historically accurate, Howe took off the names of homes around town.

“Many of the names will sound familiar to you,” she said.

Howe grew up in Houston and graduated from Columbia University. She’s now completing a Ph.D. in American and New England Studies at Boston University, which included teaching a research seminar on New England witchcraft.

She discovered she was a descendant of accused witches around age 15, and responded as any 15-year-old girl would, calling it “awesome.”

“I really didn’t think too much about it until I moved to this area. I was cooking in my kitchen one summer and pouring down sweat and had a moment of recognition — that women had been standing over an open flame with a cauldron and cooking for hundreds of years [in this same spot]. I thought a lot about what life was like in 1692,” Howe said.

Her next novel she calls “similar in tone” and is set in 1915 in Boston and follows “a unique family that discovers a unique talent.” She also has an idea percolating for a “Physick Book” sequel.